March 1994

The "Tokyo Clarinet Choir" visited Vienna. Of course, almost all musicians of the Vienna Clarinet Choir came to the Mozartsaal to listen to that fantastic ensemble. Our conductor Mag. Kurt Schmid  convinced our friends from Japan to sell us one of their contrabass clarinets at a very low price.

At the picture on the right you see how I tried to get the first useful sounds out of this strange instruments. In the background there is our honorary member Ikuo Inagaki, conductor of the TCC, together with his arranger Atsuhiro Isozaki.

Before our friends from Tokyo started their journey home, they visited our ensemble during a rehearsal. At that occassion our contrabass clarinet was heard for the very first time. That was also the reason why this photo has been taken. From left to right you see: Reinhold und Manfred Nowotny, Ikuo Inagaki, Mag. Kurt Schmid, Karin Huf und Richard Willig.

27.Juni 1994

Our very first concert at the Amtshaus Margareten, 5th district of Vienna, was a great success.

The following pieces have been performed at that event:

Ouverture zu "Der Schauspieldirektor" (W. A. Mozart)

Vocalise (S. Rachmaninoff)

Arabeske (Kurt Schmid)

Air from "Suite Nr. 3 in D" (J. S. Bach)

Ouverture zu "Cosi fan tutte" (W. A. Mozart)

Intermission

"The Happy Wanderer", march (K. Schmid)

Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka (Joh. Strauß)

Matoro-Galopp (K. Schmid)

Blue Danube Waltz (Joh. Strauß)

Leichtes Blut , Polka schnell (Joh. Strauß)

With this successful concert in the presence of an enthusiastic audience the ensemble proved itself and Prof. Mag. Kurt Schmid showed his organizing as well as artistic abilities.

The photo at the right shows you the bass players at that concert. From left to the right: Prof Wilhelm Krause, former member of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Prof. Fritz Polacek, former member of the Symphony Orchestra of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, Christian Mannsberger, Ernst Paal and Reinhold Nowotny.

Since that time, the concert in the Amtshaus Margareten is one of our yearly highlights.

June 17th 1996

On that day we played our first concert in Ottakring, the 16th district of Vienna. Since then we have been invited to perform every year in the festival hall of the Amtshaus Ottakring. 

October 4th 1996

Our friend and benefactor Ingrid Steiner (on the right) invited our ensemble to a concert in the WIFI Neunkirchen.  Mag. Kurt Schmid prepared a pretentious program which was honored by the enthusiastic audience. Singer Alexandra Farkas performed with us one of the most famous songs of Robert Stolz, "Wenn die kleinen Veilchen blühen", the "Vilja-Lied" by Franz Lehar and a Viennese song composed by Kurt Schmid.

Ms. Steiner was impressed by our performance and promised to invite us to Neunkirchen again.

February 25th and 26th 1997

Two unforgettable days for all members of the Vienna Clarinet Choir: the two concerts played  together with the Tokyo Clarinet Choir in the "Vienna Konzerthaus" and in the "Kulturzentrum Perchtoldsdorf".

The first half of the concerts the TCC played on their own and after the intermission both ensembles joined to form an impressive orchestra. First a few of our members feared they could not go along with the great players of the japanese ensemble. But at the rehearsal the fantastic feeling of playing wonderful music together with a lot of congenial musicians won over. Those concerts have become one of the most moving and important moments in the history of our orchestra.

On the right you see our former chairman, Dr. Andreas Jakl, welcome the audience. In the background the united ensemble is waiting for the downbeat of the conductor, Ikuo Inagaki.

January 25th 1998

On that day honorary member Ingrid Steiner kept her promise and invited us again to the city of Neunkirchen. But not only that we were performing a wonderful concert on that sunday morning. After that we were invited by the Rifle Club Neunkirchen where a surprise had been prepared for us. Ms. Steiner had ordered a wonderful practise target on the occasion of our 5th anniversary. You can see on it our emblem, the St. Stephan's Cathedral crossed with a clarinet and all names of the members at that time. But before we could take our present home everybody had to fire a shot on it. The practise target can be seen on our index page and it is kept in our rehearsal room.